Our holidays have been busy but fun so far. First we took a quick trip to see Mr. Robot’s family in Idaho, and then we drove home for a peaceful Christmas day of opening presents and feasting on duck and mashed potatoes.

Mr. Robot’s parents are getting old, and as much as they love having kids around they get worn out pretty easily, so we took the out of the house a lot to give them a break. Mr. Robot’s sisters were also visiting, so they came along for the outings, too. We saw Christmas lights, the local science museum with a lot of hands on displays and a temporary plastinated bodies exhibit, and a pretty cool war plane museum. All those lamps and vases in the photo are trench art, made of shell casings and such. Pretty interesting.

Walking to lunch from the science museum we also found the greatest little curio shop, and we couldn’t resist buying a few things–a couple of cow horns, a sad but beautiful bat paperweight, and a cute “zombie kid” ornament for our tree. The shop also made us realize we need a proper display shelf with lots of small spaces to display the little curiosities we end up collecting. We think it’s simple enough we can do it ourselves, so in January I’ll have to sit down and make a plan for it.

We actually came home Christmas Eve. Partly, we didn’t want to haul all our presents to Idaho, and partly we wanted to beat the weather. There’s a pretty high mountain pass between our house and our in-laws, and we wanted to get back through it before the snow got serious. From the fog and light sleet we drove through, I’d say we made it just in time. It was a bit eerie but quite beautiful.

We had a fun Christmas morning opening gifts, including a few packages from my side of the family. Myself, I got a few wonderful surprises. I’d asked “Santa” for another framed insect for my little collection and got not one, but two beautiful specimens. Santa picked out a death’s head moth and a Madagascan sunset moth, and they’ll make a lovely contrast on our wall.

I also got a set of bone runes in my stocking and a lovely wire “tree of death” from one of my sisters-in-law. I actually watched her making it on our trip and never once thought she was making it for me. I guess I’m easy to surprise.

Now we’re all just lying around like lazy cats and playing with our Christmas presents–the kids got lots of legos and board games this year. We’ll soon have to clean the house for a low key New Year’s watching Home Alone with Mr. Robot’s nearest sister. Yes, we’re finally correcting the Home Alone situation! It should be buckets of fun. I hope all of you are having an equally fun holiday season so far.